In the past couple of years, presidential hopefuls looked for new voters among religious circles.

The belief was these voters were ready for their faith-based pitches.

Clearly, a lot of re-evaluation is going on about whether this was a good idea. See this story by the Religion News Service: http://www.faithinpubliclife.org/content/news/2008/06/hazards_for_both_sides_when_po.html

In any case, San Antonio clergy played a significant role in this trend.

San Antonio pastor John Hagee endorsed John McCain and then withdrew it after a complicated set of controversies that were compared to the well-publicized trouble between Barack Obama and his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Another time, San Antonio Archbishop José Gomez critized Hillary Clinton and St. Mary’s University for allowing her to use its campus for a rally.

McCain, Clinton, Obama and other presidential candidates started out the election cycle elevating religion in their discourse only to see the subject now as one to be avoided.

Is this the end of politicians testing the religious waters?

Probably for a little while, but my guess is it’ll be considered again and pop up. It’s hard to ignore the religiously active. They tend to be registered voters who show up at the polls.